My Investing Process

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I have a number of very smart friends who have made a lot of money in selling their companies. They do not want to go back and run a company, but just would like to help out start ups and possibly make a few bucks. Often, they end up get hit up for all sorts of free advice from aspiring entrepreneurs who want to be "just like them", but are unwilling to share cash or equity.

Trust me, you can spend a lot of your day giving advice to people for free. I certainly have and will continue to for people that have done nice things for me in the past. These people are like the tramps in the old movies who would mark the garden gates of people willing to give handouts. The free advise crowd will find you as well.

My answer? Monetize your network. Don't give stuff away for free. Tell people asking for free advice that it will cost them, either in equity, cash or other favors. Some will run in the other direction. Fine. You will, however, be surprised how many of them agree to pay you for good advise on dealing with their problems. As I tell my children, the "Bank of Dad" is always open, but it may not be willing to lend you money for free.

The cloud-based software allows a retail store to quickly access point of sale, inventory and vendor relationship management capabilities without expensive hardware or a long learning curve. The small business market is poorly served for integrated supply chain applications. Erply looks like a winner.

In the mid 1970s, I spent some time in London, working with my Data Resources partners to build a European auto and transport consulting practice. It was an interesting time in the UK--industry competitiveness was at a new low, Margaret Thatcher had just become Leader of the Conservative Party, but not yet Prime Minister and the Labor government was looking for new solutions to get the economy back on track.

I was asked to meet with members of the commerce committee of the House of Commons to discuss how England could regain competitiveness in the global auto industry. We spend a few hours throwing ideas around in a generally bored group who did not seem that interested in finding any solution. When we finished, the members invited me to the "canteen" for a spot of tea. Once seated, the chairman asked, "China or India?" It took me a few seconds to realize he was asking about which type of tea it wanted....

Remembering that meeting recently got me thinking about the implicit reference to "empire" and the fact that the British once exerted huge influence over the economies of both China and India. And they became fond of many products from those countries in the process. In the 1970s, however, they were reduced to trying to keep a few auto plants open in England.

Move forward 40 years and we have the same question--China or India? Which economy will provide the growth engine for the next 50 years? Will the US be able to have any influence over these economies going forward? What positive or negative role will these economies play in aiding the overall growth of the world economy?

These are issues that should be on all entrepreneur's minds. For example, has anybody noticed that Facebook is an irrelevant social network in China and India? And will never likely be one? This will surely have a big impact on their growth and valuation going forward. If you are going to be successful in the new world order, you will need to succeed in these countries as well as in North America.

My advice? Even for the newest of the new startups, if you think you might want to go global, study how web applications for your idea will work in both China and India.

Anyone who has seen Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 will remember the mission commander Gene Krantz uttering this line as the Mission Control people in Houston were looking for a way to get the astronauts back to earth. It turns out that no one ever really said exactly that line in Mission Control. The script writers, however, thought it was a great tagline for the movie.

Failure is not an option is a good motto for start ups. No founders I deal with say that doing a start up is "insanely enjoyable" as one entrepreneur said to me the other day (I chose not to invest, wondering about his sanity). It's 100 hour weeks, lots of pizza and Raman Noddles in the diet and constant rejection/frustration/lack of resources, etc., etc. But the ones that succeed are the ones for whom failure is not an option.

Problems begin to emerge in a start up when the founders begin to believe that failure is an option. You can feel it happen and see the issues arise. The founders becomes distant, key deadlines get missed, morale plummets and investors get nervous. It's ugly. Replacing founders is very difficult, since new players are not "owners" of the original idea. Keeping the founders active, motivated and happy is often the only option.

How does a founder regain their mojo? Here are a few ideas:

Listen to Your Customers--too often, I see founders get over involved in "running the business", even though they hired competent people to make sure that happens. A founder needs to be most close to the customer community to make sure the offerings are meeting evolving customer needs.

Be ready to Switch Horses--most of my successful start ups stick to their original horse and ride it hard. But sometimes the market shifts and you do need to change horses. Understand what you would do with your company if change is necessary and if you can make such a transition.

Failure is not the End of the World--There are many facets to failure. An idea can fail but the company may not and even florish. Successful companies are not a "one-trick pony". Be sure that you have a variety of new ideas to move your company down the path to success.